Tag Archives: Jaan Sidorov

Nursing Homes, Nurse-Practitioners Developing More Expertise, Efforts to Block Exchanges, How Patients Respond to Evidence that Some Tests are Unnecessary, and Whether Obamacare “Screws” Young Americans . . .

This time around Peggy Salvatore hosts a Valentine’s Day Edition of Health Wonk Review –over at Healthcare Talent Transformation. Her round-up of some of the best of recent HealthCare posts includes:

— A piece on Health Affairs Blog by David Rothman investigating how Americans respond to “evidence that certain medical tests and screenings might be unnecessary, harmful, and not worth the money.” How do they react to research showing that some drugs are harmful? To find out, you’ll have to read the post. (You will find the link to this post, and all of the posts discussed below, here )

— Good news from Louise at Colorado Health Insurance Insider: A bill that would have repealed the 2011 law that created Colorado’s health insurance exchange/ marketplace, died in committee in a 9-2 vote. “Republicans and Democrats on the Committee on the committee rejected his portrayal of the Exchange– which has already made a lot of progress towards an opening date this fall.”

Louise adds: “Given the progress that Colorado has made over the past two years in creating the state’s marketplace and implementing various other healthcare reforms (both state-based, like maternity coverage and gender-neutral premiums, and ACA-related, including the recent push to expand Medicaid), I would say that Colorado is on track to greatly improve its overall healthcare outcomes.

She also includes a useful map showing the states that have defaulted on setting up Exchanges. As she notes “this doesn’t mean they will get a pass on Obamacare.” By law, the federal government will set up Exchanges for them.

— A post by Disease Management Care Blog’s Dr. Jaan Sidorov pointing out that non-physician professionals and lay-persons are managing to achieve a remarkable degree of medical expertise. This is, as Peggy notes, a controversial subject.

— A report that asks “do non-profit nursing homes really provide better care than their for-profit counterparts”? Over at Healthcare Economist Jason Shafrinanalyzes a study that suggests the answer is “Yes.” How do they arrive at that conclusion? Again, you’ll have to read the post.

— A post that takes on “a recent infamous article on Buzzhead ” claiming that Obamacare “screws” young Americans. Over at California Access Health’s Anthony Wright observes: “there are some obvious and non-obvious reasons why Obamacare is a boon to young adults. “ The non-obvious reasons are worth thinking about.